July 2014 Update:
The Fireworks are now set off at Apogee Stadium, across the highway from the Fouts Field.
Always check the Kiwanis’ website.
Original Post:
I was on the square one day with a girl friend, probably for lunch at the Chestnut Tree, and we looked across the street to the courthouse lawn, where children were actually running around and playing.
She turned to me and said, “Every now and then something I see just makes me think I’m living in small town America, and I LOVE it.”
Well, I live in as small a city as I ever want to, so I was a tad claustrophobic. However, the Denton Kiwanis’ annual 4th of July celebration at UNT’s Fouts Field, is some small-towness I can get down with and love.
If you’ve never been, you want to go. If you’ve ever been, you know what I mean – people in the stands, people in the parking lot, people sitting on the lawn of the coliseum, while their kids slide down the grassy slope on flattened card board boxes… Everyone gathered to watch a spectacular and free fireworks display put on every year by a local chapter of a benevolent organization.
Seriously, you wish every city, town, and village could be the recipients of such generous largesse.
This year, a sister, the significant other (SO), and I celebrated white trash style. In the back of the SO’s pickup, we were barefoot and seated atop old comforters with a cooler of beer, squeezed into a barely legal (OK, blatantly illegal) spot in the parking lot. Why cold-kicking it in the bed of a pick up is so much more 4th of July for me than anything else, I don’t even know - but it is.
And the display we watched was awesome. Bigger than last year, and featuring a recording of The Battle Hymn of the Republic, which is guaranteed to make me tear up, at one point I leaned over to my sister and said, “This looks like what you see in pictures of fireworks!”
You know, I think you tend to forget, during the year, just how cool fireworks are, and when you finally get to see them again, you remember – fireworks rule! Y’all it was truly scrumptious.
Now, if you were celebrating outside the stadium, as we were, you might not know that the display is also a fundraiser. While it is totally free to attend, the Kiwanis accept donations at Fouts Stadium (collected by the ‘bucket brigade’), which go to support the free medical, dental, and prescription drug assistance they’ve been providing to children in Denton County Texas for 86 years and counting. The fireworks show is their largest yearly fundraiser.
If you didn’t have a chance to donate – or didn’t even know you could - and you’d like to, never fear! The Kiwanis assure me they accept donations all year long at:
Denton Area Kiwanis
225 W. Hickory, Ste A
Denton, TX 76201
I figure I’ll just help them get a jump on next year’s event and donate now – all Dentonistas, Dentonites and Dentonautshttp://bestofdenton.blogspot.com/2009/07/fantastic-fiery-free-fourth-at-fouts.html are more than welcome to join me. Come on folks - it's Denton County's kids we're helping.
July 17, 2009
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